Welcome to the August 2010 JISCMail Newsletter. We hope you have all enjoyed your summer break, we've all been away too hence the shorter newsletter this month. Next month we are introducing a new feature so keep an eye on the JISCMail website for more detais. This newsletter was created with our very own newsletter tool. Any subscriber to JISCMail can use our professional looking newsletter templates. Find out more here: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help/subscribers/newsletters.html.

In this issue of the JISCMail newsletter, we will provide you with tips on how to use JISCMail's calendar and newsletter tool and there is a tip from the helpline for owners.

If you have colleagues who you think would find the newsletter useful, please feel free to pass this on to them. They can sign up for their own free monthly copy by registering here: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=JISCMAIL-NEWSLETTER

Finally - if there's something you'd like to see in future JISCMail newsletters or have a JISCMail success story, please send us an email: [log in to unmask] We’d love to hear from you.

Calendaring Tip

Import your Outlook Calendar into JISCMail Calendars

You can save our Outlook 2007 or higher calendar and import it into JISCMail calendars.

Click on your Calendars folder in Outlook.

Go to the File menu and select Save as.

Type an appropriate name and remember the location of the .ics file you are saving.

To import a calendar (iCAL file), go to https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/yourgroupname, select Calendars and click on the 'upload iCAL' link at the bottom left hand side. You will be presented with the following form:

Click the browse button to find the iCAL file you have saved from Outlook. Click on the 'Select Calendar' button to choose which calendar you wish to import your iCAL file into. Choose the appropriate options and then click on the 'Continue' button.

Newsletter Tip

Create your own custom Newsletter template

To create a new template based on a default template, simply edit that template and change the template name before clicking the Save button. The template will now be saved with the new name.

To create a new template from scratch, click on the Create New Template option in the select template section. The Create New Template screen opens, which is where you will enter the content for the new template.

To delete a template, click on the Recycling Bin icon associated with that template.To refresh the newsletter template gallery, click the Refresh Gallery option.

Helpline Tip

As a group owner, you will receive daily error monitoring reports. These will notify you of addresses that LISTSERV is having difficulty delivering to.There are various reasons that mail cannot be delivered to inboxes. For example, the server may be temporarily down, the subscriber's mailbox might be full, or the address may no longer be legitimate because the subscriber has left the institution etc.

Most delivery errors, will contain phrases such as 'No such user' or 'Recipient address not recognised' and quote the email address that failed. In these cases, you can remove the subscriber from your list. Any such as 'Mailbox Full' can be ignored.

However, the system will try to deliver failing mail for 4 days or 100 attempts unless it is specified otherwise in your list header. This means that even if you have deleted a permanently failing address, the retries will continue, and the error reports will be sent to you, until the retry period is up. Listserv will 'Auto-Delete' a failing address after this time.

The retry period and number of delivery attempts can both be changed within the list configuration. The 'Auto-Delete' option can also be turned off if necessary. Contact the helpline if you would like help with this.

It is possible for an address to appear on the monitoring report that isn't subscribed to the group and this is usually caused by a subscriber having their mail forwarded to another account. It may be possible to work out which address on the list is forwarding, if it is from the same domain for example, or other aspects of the adress match.

New JISCMail Groups

Efficiency

OER2RELEASE - This group is used by the OER programme support team and OER release strand projects to communicate programme information.

PFACT-USERS - This group is for HE pFACT users to provide mutual support and to share information such as product problems, development issues, and solutions to common development and implementation issues.

JISC Digital Content - A group to share information about the issues and news related to the creation and dissemination of digital resources, with particular regard to work from the JISC Digitisation and eContent Programme.

RADIOZOO - This is a group to manage the activities of the Radio Galaxy Zoo science team.

Learning and Teaching

ILLUSTRATION-STUDENTS - The group brings together illustration students from all universities with relevant courses in the UK. The aim is improved communincations and networking to enable the sharing of ideas, links, resources, jobs, courses, news and chat. Students worldwide are welcome to join and help us build an international network of student illustrators.

OER2OMAC - This is list is used by the Open Educational Resources programme support team and OER Open Educational Resources for Accredited Courses OMAC strand projects to communicate programme information.

LAND-STYLE - LAND-STYLE is a list for discussion of research and events related to the stylistics of landscape, space and place.

KINDURA - List for the Kindura project, a Cloud Computing Pilot in the JISC Flexible Service Delivery programme.

SPQR - List for the SPQR project in the JISC Managing Research Data Programme - Citing, Linking and Integrating Research Data

REALBIOG - This group is used by academics and social researchers interested in discussing the theoretical, methodological and policy implications of realist biographical methods.

UWSCREATIVE - Research network for academic partners working on the Creative and Cultural Industries Sector.

Operational News

The JANET 'at risk' period applies to the JISCMail service and occurs every Tuesday morning between 07:00 and 09:00. Wherever possible, all maintenance will be conducted within this period.

The JISCMail Helpline will be unmanned for the bank holiday from Saturday 21st August to Tuesday 31st August inclusive. However, the JISCMail service will continue to operate as normal during this period. If you have any problems, please email the Helpline and your enquiries will be dealt with upon our return.